Zaria then focused her attention on Elle, who had been tense since she met Zaria for the first time. “What’s wrong?” Zaria finally pointed out, directing her attention at Elle. Elle looked surprised but sighed. “This is a lot. I never thought anything like this would ever happen.” Zaria felt a bit bad for Elle. I mean, having a murder investigation at your own house? Not really the best thing at the moment. “She wasn’t even supposed to be working today…” Elle uttered under her breath. “Speaking of that…Does Sandra usually wear purple?” Elle, confused on how that relates, hesitantly answers. “Yes, actually—I think she only wears purple. It seems like the same dress each time. Everyone else dresses in their uniform. But I don’t intrude on what goes on at home.” ‘That was interesting,’ Zaria thought. She saw a similar dark haired purple dress wearing woman the day before the murder. “Was she working yesterday?” Zaria asked, and Elle shook her head. “No, she only works weekdays.” That was strange. Then who was the woman outside yesterday? The dress seemed similar? Sandra’s the only one who wears her own clothes; so that must have been Sandra arguing with the guard the day before. But Elle said she wasn’t working yesterday. ‘Someone has a habit of coming when not invited.’ Zaria thought. But then again, Zaria was far away. Could she have been mistaken? But Sandra’s the only one that doesn’t wear a uniform. ‘That’s weird…’

“So, what now?” Elle asked, saying what everyone was thinking. “Interview everyone.” The Chief and Zaria said at the same time, in completely different tones. One sounded very excited to ask questions to random people all night; the other sounded like he had been doing this for centuries and was tired of it. “No one’s allowed to leave until I talk to everyone!” Zaria said excitedly, now running to go find someone. The Chief sighed like he was a babysitter, babysitting a problematic six year old and slowly followed after Zaria. D.A. Alexander did the same. “I’m going to be in my room, if you need anything please come to my room on the left on the second floor. It’s obvious. And feel free to roam around and talk to anyone you need.” Elle slightly bowed and headed to her room. “Tell me what you find tomorrow.” D.A. Alexander stated, pulling his flip phone out. Zaria had to turn her head away so he wouldn’t see her laughing. ‘Someone couldn’t afford an Iphone.’ Zaria thought, even though the Iphone had just come out two years ago. His accent was very strong. “And you—” He pointed to Zaria’s chest, an annoyed and frustrated expression on his face. “Don’t let this blow up in my face.” Zaria, being her overdramatic self, did a military salute and smiled. Though, she’s never been in the military. “Don’t get your bridges in a bunch Alex.” Her grin was almost as big as the frown on his face. He didn’t know what irritated him more: Zaria poking fun at his accent or the fact she said the saying wrong. “Whatever, that’s not even the saying.” He muttered as he turned away and left. 

“Well, looks like it’s just me and you, Chief!” Zaria exclaimed with excitement. Her arm was around the Chief's big shoulders and she patted his back and ran off. He sighed, reluctantly following her. He knew she was going to be trouble, just like his daughter. But he could deal with it.

“You like lollipops?” Zaria asked, throwing a cotton candy flavored lollipop in her mouth. She held out another lollipop—cherry—to their first suspect while also handing one—blueberry—to the chief; who was sitting next to her. The suspect hesitantly reached out for the lollipop. “To be honest,” Zaria stated, “I don’t really like lollipops. I just carry them around and I haven't had dinner yet.” Zaria laughed, sitting back in the rolling chair she had found. She had a notebook in her lap with one of her edible pens poking out of the notebook.

Zaria waited a couple of seconds before talking. She was always like this when wanting someone to spill information. Though it usually works on coworkers and Leon, she had never tried it to get someone to confess to murder. She looked for obvious signs: sweaty palms, avoiding eye contact, fidgeting, hand gestures. Zaria didn’t even know you could show all the signs at once. 

SUSPECT #1 : River ‘Thorn’ Morris - The Nanny [Brown curls, brown eyes, tan skin, glasses]

• Note: Super nervous, won’t look you in the eyes.
• -Note: Play nice.

“So you take care of Elle Summer’s kids?” The Chief asked, and Thorn hesitantly nodded. “She doesn’t like to consider them her kids, they’re her sisters but she’s serving time in jail.” Thorn replied, head down and looking away. “For what?”  “Child abuse.” The room fell silent for a bit until Zaria—as usual—couldn’t pick up social cues and started speaking. “How long have you been working here? With Elle’s not kids?” Thorn felt uneasy around Zaria, I mean everyone did at some point. She was so straightforward about everything. Thorn started messing with her fingers again and refusing to look up. “Two years.” She muttered in a quiet voice. Her voice sounded modulated, like she was putting on a front. “Long time. Must be tiring.” Zaria added, trying to strike a casual conversation away from the weird tension. “Yeah, actually you would think I’d get tired but the children are lovely.” She finally looked up again and smiled. Zaria—who got exceptionally good at faking things—flashed a smile back before she decided to get serious. “What happened today? You should know what I’m talking about.” Zaria’s grin was still on her face as she said that, only it felt honeyed and insincere. Thorn went back into her shell, now her legs were tightly squeezed together. She pulled her dress down to distract herself from what was happening. “I didn’t do anything.” Thorn murmered, pushing up her glasses that had been falling off. “I never said you did.” Thorn’s lips quivered and she started scratching at her arm. “I didn’t even see Sandra today. She wasn’t even supposed to be here!” Thorn had slightly raised her voice but quickly backtracked. “The kids had me occupied the whole time, I didn’t leave their room at all.” Her hands were going all over the place and she kept adjusting in her chair. She kept looking at the floor, specifically the left. Zaria knew that she made her uncomfortable. ‘Good.’ She thought. That’s exactly what she was going for. 

“That’s it? That’s all you ‘gonna ask of her?” The Chief said, confused he followed Zaria out of the room. “Nothing much to ask. Sometimes things are just straightforward.” Zaria shrugged but then flashed a smirk. “Though, I’ll ask her again later if she’s willing to tell the truth finally.” Zaria folded her arms and started walking down the steps. “Wait, you think she’s lying? Then why didn’t you call her out? And where are we going?” “If I call her out, she’ll just go back into her shell. No, I have an idea but I gotta wait it out.” Zaria swinged around the corner of the stairs until they reached the bottom. “Plus, we’re going down.” Zaria was not one to make sense of her words but as long as she knew what she was saying, she didn’t care if anyone else didn’t. “We’re going down, and left.”

The Chief, not knowing what she means, followed the twenty-four year old to a decorative door. The only door on the left downstairs. Zaria smiled to herself before knocking hard on the door. The whole time, Thorn was looking down and left. Not because she was scared or because she had a habit, but because something was down there that she didn’t want them to see. Or talk to.

“Excuse me! Anyone in there?” After a few moments, Zaria and the Chief heard scrambling and laughter coming from inside the room. They turned to each other and Chief decided to knock next. The laughter stopped and footsteps can be heard coming towards the door. The Chief stepped back, expecting a grown adult. But Zaria stayed in place, knowing exactly who was behind that door. 

Suddenly, a kid with blonde hair pokes his head out. The Chief looked shocked and smiled softly. “Hey there bud, my name’s Jax but you can call me Chief.”  “Hey there kiddo, listen we just have a few questions to ask you alright?” The kid looked unsure of what was going on. He looked a bit scared until he realized Zaria had lollipops in her shorts. Despite Zaria and Chief being complete strangers to this child, he opened the door wider and let them inside. In the room, revealed two twin beds with another kid—almost identical to the other one—sat.

“What do ‘ya want?” The kid that let them in asked. “What’s your name?” “Daniel. And that’s my brother Simon.” Daniel pointed to his brother and joined him on his bed. “Now what ‘ya want?” Daniel had a thick Texas accent despite being so young. “Just wanna know what happened today.” The Chief said, his voice softer and nice. “Why?” “Because someone died.” Chief smacked Zaria on her back before smiling at the children. Zaria wasn’t the type to sugarcoat things, and definitely not around kids. Kids don’t want to be sugar-coated, they just want the truth. That’s how Zaria felt when she was a kid. “Oh.” Daniel looked at his brother and then he started speaking. “All we did was play and do our school work.” Simon said, pointing to a stack of papers on their shared desk. “We didn’t kill anyone, but we also didn’t see anyone kill anyone.” “We know you didn’t.” The Chief said, not knowing if they did or didn’t. “Well we don’t know-“ The Chief quickly interrupted Zaria and continued talking. “Anything happen while you were with Ms. Morris, or Ms.Thorn?” The kids shook their heads. “We just played the whole time.” Simon clarified, picking up one of his toys. “You guys stayed in this room the whole time?” Zaria asked, and Daniel nodded. “Yeah, we didn’t—“ Daniel interrupted himself and turned to his brother. “Well she did get us those juice boxes from the kitchen.” Zaria smirked to herself and the Chief sighed. “Anyone here that saw her?” “She told us to wait in the hallway until she got back from the kitchen. Mr.Morgan was going the same way as Ms.Thorn.” 

“So Thorn lied, and there was a witness that probably saw her walk into the kitchen.” The Chief recalled, now walking with Zaria to a certain new character. She thought of all the people in her life as characters. Each with their own and different conflicts and personalities. She didn’t think of people as lesser than her, she never did. She always thought that everyone in her life was like a huge game of Candyland. Unlike Chess, the ride wasn’t strategic and planned, but fun and unexpected. “Yup! Get that witness to say they also saw Sandra there and we have a lead. After that, I think you should call it a day.” Zaria smiled, happily skipping towards the next suspect.